Arthur Ernest Hayball

Arthur Ernest Hayball was born in Southampton and he was the eldest of Arthur and Elizabeth Hayball’s eight children. In 1901 the family were living at 14 Marchwood Road in Shirley, Southampton.

Arthur served as a Fireman and Trimmer with the Mercantile Marine and was one of 11 crew who was died when the SS Antonio was sunk off Dartmouth on 7th March 1917 after striking a mine laid by a German Submarine. Arthur was 30 yers of age.

The SS Antonio was a British cargo ship transporting a cargo of hay from Barry to Cherbourg. All of the crew were lost at sea.

Arthur’s mother Elizabeth was instrumental in getting his name and the names of others added to the Cenotaph in 1921, after they had been omitted from the original list of those commemorated when the Cenotaph was dedicated in 1920. She was initially told by the Town Clerk that no further names could be added and then wrote to Norman Catchpole of the Hampshire Comrades of the Great War who took up the campaign and successfully had the supplementary names added in 1921.